Tag Archives: hesed

On Election and Faithfulness

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Deuteronomy 7:7–9,

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,  but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations

The theology of election leads to the exhortation to know the very character of God. He is sovereign: loving whom he loves, having mercy on whom he wills — and he is not arbitrary. He acts in accordance to a standard, namely, himself. He is a God of covenant faithfulness.

This passage is a remarkable blending together of YHWH’s utter sovereignty and condescending relation to his people. He is sovereign enough to choose whom he wills, according to his own good pleasure, and yet he is guided by his own character such that he never acts outside of who he is. He is sovereign, in that he does whatever he pleases, and he is bound, in that he doesn’t contradict his character.

This is deeply rooted in the essence of the triune God, whose election is in reference to the Son (Ephesians 1:4). And the root of his election — his unconditional, because-he-is-God election — and his mind-boggling, mouth-shutting faithfulness is intrinsic to himself. It is in himself, “for he is content with his own secret good pleasure.”

Waiting Is Hard to Do

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Brian Tabb:

Let’s face it—Americans are simply not very good at waiting. We live in a land of fast food and instant gratification. We pace waiting rooms. We complain about traffic. We dread flight delays. To these mundane experiences of waiting we could add more long-term and painful examples—the forty-year old single waiting for a spouse, the aspiring mother waiting to conceive, the unemployed father waiting for work, the chronically ill person waiting for a cure. Perhaps you have grown weary in your waiting, and you find yourself praying “How long, O Lord?”

Read the entire article on Isaiah 64:4 at FighterVerses.com.

The Freest People to Ever Live, Ever

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“For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

. . . no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, declares the LORD.” (Isaiah 54:10, 17)

What is our heritage? The steadfast love of the LORD will not depart from us. His covenant of peace shall not be removed. He has compassion on us, such that nothing can overcome us. No weapon of the enemy, no schemes of the wicked, no assault by the world.

Paul says “All things are yours whether. . . life or death or the present or the future, all are yours; and you are Christ’s. . .” (1 Cor. 3:21-23). Martin Luther writes:

This is not to say that every Christian is placed over all things to have and control them by physical power—a madness with which some churchmen are afflicted—for such power belongs to kings, princes, and other men on earth. Our ordinary experience in life shows us that we are subjected to all, suffer many things, and even die. . .

The power of which we speak is spiritual. It rules in the midst of enemies and is powerful in the midst of oppression. This means nothing else than that “power is made perfect in weakness” [II Cor. 12:9] and that in all things I can find profit toward salvation [Rom. 8:28], so that the cross and death itself are compelled to serve me and to work together with me for my salvation (Luther, Freedom of a Christian, 290).

In Christ, we are the freest people to ever live on the earth.

The Morning Can Be Devastating…

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“Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” (Psalms 143:8)

The morning can be devastating. Reality sets in. We need good news. We need to hear of the LORD’s steadfast love. The guilt of our faithless hearts must give way to the faithfulness of Christ who still keeps us and upholds the universe by his word.

Jesus Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree. He has set us free from guilt, shame, and fear, and from the cracked up fabrications of our own righteousness. By his death and resurrection, he has unleashed the covenant love of the triune God upon us. He has united us to himself by faith. He has reconciled us to Father and sealed us with his Spirit.

The holy Three and One has called us his own– the Father through the Son by the Spirit. This is good news.

Legitimization and Actualization: What We Should Do But Cannot Unless God Do Something

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Psalm 95 follows the outline of the Pentateuch. The invitation to worship the LORD is founded upon His work of creation (vv. 4-6) and His calling of Israel (v. 7). The psalmist is exhorting the readers not to be like those at Meribah who did not believe (vv. 8-11). This is the psalm in the context of calling its reader to worship (vv. 1-2, 6).

“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!” (v.6). Indeed. Let us do this. The psalmist has legitimized such worship. This is what we should do. He made us. He made everything. He is the Unmoved Mover, the non-orginating, non-derivative, all-sufficient Being who creates and governs by His Word. The infinite, everlasting God, the Ultimate Reality, the greater-than-that-which-can be imagined. We should worship Him, of course. Our worship of God has been legitimized.

But, how are we not going to end up like those at Meribah? How are we to be any different? Legitimization is not enough. That is what Romans 1:18-20 does. We don’t need to know what merely should be, but why and how what should be, can be. Beyond our worship of God being legitimized, it must be actualized.

So we read on in the theocratic psalms of 93-99. A transition begins to unfold. Psalm 98:3:

He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

Steadfast love (hesed) is mentioned again (99:5, 101:1, 103:8, 17; 106:1). The sketch of God’s theocratic rule develops into a focus on His covenant faithfulness (105:6-11), which is supremely displayed in none other but the Messiah, Jesus—the amen to God’s promises, the true and clear expression that He will accomplish what He promised. This is the objective work of God in Christ to bring about the New Covenant. This objective, external work of God is what actualizes our worship. Only God creating new hearts in us is what makes what should be, be.

God Does This: An Implication in the Book of Jeremiah of the God Whose Purposes Cannot Be Thwarted

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Jeremiah has been speaking the word of the LORD to the people as we come to chapter 23. He has been fuming God’s judgment on them. And in the midst of all this judgment towards these covenant breakers, we see something amazing about God. He is clear that the inability of the people to keep covenant has not hindered His purposes to make for Himself a people of worshipers. In fact, His continued purpose goes way back… I mean way back to Adam. 

This redeemed remnant made under the righteous Branch of David–the Branch of Whom it will be said, “The LORD is our righteousness (23:5-6)–this remnant will accomplish the earliest command given in Genesis 1:28. The picture is a world of people who worship the LORD…

“Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.”

(Jeremiah 23:2-3 ESV, italics mine)

 

 

Canonical Context Says More Than Wisdom: Job, 15

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The LORD rebukes the friends, Job intercedes on their behalf. The restoration of property and children at the narrative’s end seem arbitrary after 42:1-6. That is the point, right? Yes! Wisdom, the fear of the LORD, humble submission to His sovereign goodness.

But that concluding information about the LORD restoring the “fortunes of Job” reminds us of something wonderful. It sends us back to the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy 30:1-3. There to “return to the LORD” means that He will “restore your fortunes and have compassion on you.” It was His promise to be fulfilled upon His people’s repentance. A narrative about wisdom that follows the Psalter’s praise of the LORD’s covenant faithfulness concludes with an illustration of just that.

Yes, Job learns wisdom. Yes, the righteous and good sovereign God is displayed. And moreover, this God is the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob… this is the God of “steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…”

The stuff is peripheral. The point is the sovereign LORD in context. Oh, look at Who He is!